No CrossRef data available.
Article contents
Protests and Pushback: Women's Rights, Student Activism, and Institutional Response in the Deep South
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 16 November 2020
Abstract
Pivoting around two sit-ins at the University of Georgia, this article examines student activism in the late 1960s and early 1970s in the US South. The first sit-in, at the conclusion of the spring 1968 March for Coed Equality, was part of the effort to overcome parietal rules that significantly restricted women's rights but left men relatively untouched. The second occurred in 1972 when the university responded to salacious allegations of immorality in women's residence halls by replacing progressive residential education programming with the policing of student behavior. This article centers student efforts for women's rights, demonstrates how students and administrators shifted tactics in reaction to external stimuli, and explores the repercussions of challenging the entrenched patriarchal power structure. In so doing, it joins the growing literature complicating understandings of student activism in the era by focusing attention away from the most famous and extreme cases.
- Type
- Articles
- Information
- Copyright
- Copyright © 2020 History of Education Society
References
1 See, for example, Broadhurst, Christopher, “‘There Can Be No Business as Usual’: The University of North Carolina and the Student Strike of May 1970,” Southern Cultures 21, no. 2 (Summer 2015), 84–101CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Broadhurst, Christopher J., “‘We Didn't Fire a Shot, We Didn't Burn a Building’: The Student Reaction at North Carolina State University to the Kent State Shootings, May 1970,” North Carolina Historical Review 87, no. 3 (July 2010), 283–309Google Scholar; and Hall, Mitchel K., “‘A Crack in Time’: The Response of Students at the University of Kentucky to the Tragedy at Kent State, May 1970,” Register of the Kentucky Historical Society 83, no. 1 (Winter 1985), 36–63Google Scholar. Campus-focused studies emphasizing institutional issues include Angulo, A. J. and Graham, Leland, “Winthrop College in the Sixties: Campus Protests, Southern Style,” Historical Studies in Education 23, no. 2 (Fall 2011), 113–128Google Scholar; Thompson, Ruth Anne, “‘A Taste of Student Power’: Protest at the University of Tennessee, 1964–1970,” Tennessee Historical Quarterly 57, no. 1 (April 1998), 80–97Google Scholar; and Huff, Christopher A., “Radicals between the Hedges: The Origins of the New Left at the University of Georgia and the 1968 Sit-In,” Georgia Historical Quarterly 94, no. 2 (July 2010), 179–209Google Scholar.
2 Rossinow, Doug, “Historiographical Reflections,” in Rebellion in Black & White: Southern Student Activism in the 1960s, ed. Cohen, Robert and Snyder, David J. (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2013), 307Google Scholar.
3 Williamson-Lott, Joy Ann, Jim Crow Campus: Higher Education and the Struggle for a New Southern Social Order (New York: Teachers College Press, 2018), 4Google Scholar.
4 Williamson-Lott, Jim Crow Campus, 7, 8.
5 Williamson-Lott, Jim Crow Campus, 88.
6 Michel, Gregg L., Struggle for a Better South: The Southern Student Organizing Committee, 1964–1969 (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
7 Turner, Jeffrey A., Sitting In and Speaking Out: Student Movements in the American South, 1960–1970 (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2010), 7Google Scholar.
8 Robert Cohen, “Introduction. Prophetic Minority versus Recalcitrant Majority: Southern Student Dissent and the Struggle for Progressive Change in the 1960s,” in Cohen and Snyder, Rebellion in Black & White, 7.
9 Gary S. Sprayberry, “Student Radicalism and the Antiwar Movement at the University of Alabama,” in Cohen and Snyder, Rebellion in Black & White, 148–70; Kelly Morrow, “Sexual Liberation at the University of North Carolina,” in Cohen and Snyder, Rebellion in Black & White, 195–217; and Christopher A. Huff, “Conservative Student Activism at the University of Georgia,” in Cohen and Snyder, Rebellion in Black & White, 171–91.
10 Ballantyne, Katherine, “‘Students Are [Not] Slaves’: 1960s Student Power Debates in Tennessee,” Journal of American Studies 54, no. 2 (May 2020), 295–322CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
11 Lieberman, Robbie and Cochran, David, “‘We Closed Down the Damn School’: The Party Culture and Student Protest at Southern Illinois University during the Vietnam War Era,” Peace & Change 26, no, 3 (July 2001), 318CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
12 Lieberman and Cochran, “‘We Closed Down the Damn School,’” 318; Doug Rossinow, “The New Left in the Counterculture: Hypothesis and Evidence,” Radical History Review 67 (1997), 79–120. See also, Rossinow, Douglas C., The Politics of Authenticity: Liberalism, Christianity, and the New Left in America (New York: Columbia University Press, 1998)Google Scholar.
13 Turner, Sitting In and Speaking Out, 11.
14 McCandless, Amy Thompson, The Past in the Present: Women's Higher Education in the Twentieth-Century American South (Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 1999), 121Google Scholar.
15 Peril, Lynn, College Girls: Bluestockings, Sex Kittens, and Coeds, Then and Now (New York: W. W. Norton, 2006), 172Google Scholar.
16 Sartorius, Kelly C., Deans of Women and the Feminist Movement: Emily Taylor's Activism (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014), 135–44, 153–64Google Scholar.
17 Clemente, Deirdre, Dress Casual: How College Students Redefined American Style (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2014), 45Google Scholar. For a recent treatment of the dangers of conflating separate events under one framework, see Bristow, Nancy K., Steeped in the Blood of Racism: Black Power, Law and Order, and the 1970 Shootings at Jackson State College (New York: Oxford University Press, 2020)CrossRefGoogle Scholar. For a discussion of ways scholars have differentiated types of campus activism, see Nidiffer, Jana, “Corrective Lenses: Suffrage, Feminist Poststructural Analysis, and the History of Higher Education,” in Reconstructing Policy in Higher Education: Feminist Poststructural Perspectives, ed. Allan, Elizabeth J., Iverson, Susan Van Deventer, and Ropers-Huilman, Rebecca (New York: Routledge, 2010), 41–62Google Scholar
18 Huff, “Radicals between the Hedges,” 194–201, 205–208.
19 As cited in Aaron Hale, “Opening a Door: UGA Marks a Century of Coeducation,” Georgia: The Magazine of the University of Georgia (Fall 2018), 21. Claudia Goldin and Lawrence Katz show a relatively steady rate of coeducation adoption from the late nineteenth century until the 1960s, when a number of private institutions in the Northeast went coeducational. Rates of coeducation differed by region, with the South trailing the Midwest and West in percentage of students in coeducational institutions until the second half of the twentieth century. Nancy Weiss Malkiel broadly, and Anne Perkins specifically about Yale University, recently demonstrated the depth of resistance to coeducation at elite institutions in the U.S. North and the United Kingdom. Goldin, Claudia and Katz, Lawrence F., “Putting the ‘Co’ in Education: Timing, Reasons, and Consequences of College Coeducation from 1835 to the Present,” Journal of Human Capital 5, no. 4 (Winter 2011), 381, 391–92CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Malkiel, Nancy Weiss, “Keep the Damned Women Out”: The Struggle for Coeducation (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2016)Google Scholar; and Perkins, Anne Gardner, Yale Needs Women: How the First Group of Girls Rewrote the Rules of an Ivy League Giant (Naperville, IL: Sourcebooks, 2019)Google Scholar.
20 Sara Bertha Townsend, “The Admission of Women to the University of Georgia,” Georgia Historical Quarterly 43, no. 2 (June 1959), 156–69. Despite its short duration, World War I offered women academic opportunities not previously present. McCandless, Past in the Present, 88–89.
21 Townsend, “Admission of Women,” 167–79; Alice W. Stancil, interview by Ray Moore, WSB-TV, Atlanta, GA, Jan. 1961, http://crdl.usg.edu/cgi/crdl?format=_video;query=id:ugabma_wsbn_69562; and “Co-eds Formulate Own Student Council,” Red and Black (Athens, GA), Oct. 8, 1920, 3.
22 McCandless, Past in the Present, 123–24.
23 Barrow, David C., “Co-Education at the University; An Address Before the Georgia Federation of Women's Clubs, at the Twenty-Sixth Annual Convention,” Bulletin of the University of Georgia 23, no. 3 (1922), 8Google Scholar.
24 “Women Students Discuss New Law,” Red and Black (Athens, GA), March 8, 1929, 5; and Wylly Folk, “Co-eds Requested Not to Appear in Masculine Attire,” Red and Black (Athens, GA), Oct. 22, 1926, 5.
25 Campaspe Davis, “What Price Co-Education,” Red and Black (Athens, GA), Nov. 19, 1926, 5.
26 Dyer, Thomas G., The University of Georgia: A Bicentennial History, 1785–1985 (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1985), 222–40Google Scholar.
27 “University Students Hold Two Mass Demonstrations,” Red and Black (Athens, GA), Dec. 8, 1955, 1; and “Ridiculousness,” Red and Black (Athens, GA), Dec. 8, 1955, 4.
28 “Students Parade for Holiday in Demonstration after Rally,” Red and Black (Athens, GA), Nov. 19, 1959, 1.
29 Pratt, Robert A., We Shall Not Be Moved: The Desegregation of the University of Georgia (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2002), 93–107Google Scholar.
30 “Petition Denied,” Red and Black (Athens, GA), March 26, 1953, 4.
31 Bill Shipp, “On Rules,” Red and Black (Athens, GA), Oct. 22, 1953, 4.
32 “Aderhold Approves Living, Dining Plan Affecting Freshman,” Red and Black (Athens, GA), Feb. 8, 1952, 1; “Cox Tightens Authorization,” Red and Black (Athens, GA), Oct. 22, 1953, 1; “Williams Cites Stricter Rules as Study Aid,” Red and Black (Athens, GA), Oct. 4, 1957, 1; and “Stallings Publicizes Policies on Proper Student Clothing,” Red and Black (Athens, GA), Oct. 4, 1957, 1.
33 “Stepped-Up WSGA Program Includes New Discipline Plan,” Red and Black (Athens, GA), March 12, 1948, 5; Women's Student Government Association, Through the Arch, 1951–1952, 16, folder 2, box 3, Edith L. Stallings and Louise McBee Papers, Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library, University of Georgia, Athens, GA (hereafter cited as Stallings/McBee Papers).
34 “Dean Explains Rules to Group,” Red and Black (Athens, GA), Oct. 31, 1957, 1.
35 Clemente, Dress Casual, 43.
36 McCandless, Past in the Present, 147.
37 Dixon v. Alabama State Board of Education, 294 F. 2d 150 (5th Cir. 1961), cert. den'd 368 U.S. 930 (1961); Lee, Philip, “The Case of Dixon v. Alabama State Board of Education: From Civil Rights to Students’ Rights and Back Again,” Teachers College Record 116, no. 12 (Dec. 2014), 1–18Google Scholar.
38 “Class Officers Investigate Mixed Entertainment Ban,” Red and Black (Athens, GA), Feb. 22, 1962, 1.
39 Janet McPherson, “Freshman Women See Room for Regulation Improvements,” Red and Black (Athens, GA), April 16, 1963, 6; and Nick Dunten, “Students Voice for Rule Changes,” Red and Black (Athens, GA), Aug. 1, 1963, 6.
40 Gail Carter, “Dean of Women Believes All Students Want ‘Best,’” Red and Black (Athens, GA), Sept. 20, 1963, 2.
41 Billingsley, William J., Communists on Campus: Race, Politics, and the Public University in Sixties North Carolina (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1999)Google Scholar; and Williamson-Lott, Jim Crow Campus, 81–85. The North Carolina bill was passed just days after the University of California Regents rescinded their own prohibitions.
42 “No Red Debate, Committee Says,” Red and Black (Athens, GA), Oct. 8, 1963, 1; Nick Dunten, “Students to Fight Bill,” Red and Black (Athens, GA), Jan. 21, 1964, 1; “Pickard Asks Ban on Red Speakers,” Atlanta Constitution, Jan. 16, 1964, 8; and Billy Mann, “Anti-Communist Bill: 737 Killed in Committee,” Red and Black (Athens, GA), Feb. 6, 1964, 1. Alabama, Kentucky, South Carolina, and Tennessee likewise considered bans but acquiesced to institutions invoking their own rules. Turner, Sitting In and Speaking Out, 143–51; and Lesesne, Henry H., A History of the University of South Carolina, 1940–2000 (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 2001), 201–203Google Scholar.
43 “Bill to Bar Red Speakers Still Alive, Miller Holds,” Atlanta Constitution, Feb. 16, 1966, 8.
44 Turner, Sitting In and Speaking Out, 138–143.
45 Carlton Brown Jr., “The Children at Berkeley,” Red and Black (Athens, GA), Oct. 26, 1965, 4. See also, Landi Branham, “War Demonstrations Opposed by Students,” Red and Black (Athens, GA), Oct. 26, 1965, 2; and Harold Black, Letter to the Editor, Red and Black (Athens, GA), Nov. 2, 1965, 4.
46 See “Letters to the Editor: Stupidity, Unconcern, Apathy Discussed,” Red and Black (Athens, GA), Nov. 9, 1965, 4.
47 Nellie Fowler, “Rhodes Says Rules Unfair to Women,” Red and Black (Athens, GA), April 29, 1965, 1, 8.
48 Fowler, “Rhodes Says Rules Unfair to Women,” 1, 8.
49 Sartorius, Deans of Women. On the shifting role of student affairs officers more broadly, see, Joy L. Gaston-Gayles et al., “From Disciplinarian to Change Agent: How the Civil Rights Era Changed the Roles of Student Affairs Professionals,” NASPA Journal 42, no. 3 (July 2005), 263–82.
50 Louise McBee, “Annual Report, Office of the Dean of Women, 1965–66,” 37, folder 22, box 1, Stallings/McBee Papers.
51 Don Rhodes, “Dean McBee Approves Visits in Men's Dorms,” Red and Black (Athens, GA), April 21, 1966, 1; and “WSGA Secures Change: Dean McBee and Staff Join in Announcement,” Red and Black (Athens, GA), May 19, 1966, 1.
52 Turner, Sitting In and Speaking Out, 129–31.
53 Joe Krakoviak, “Simpson Recalls Days of Sit-Ins, Protests,” Red and Black (Athens, GA), Feb. 1, 1980, 3.
54 Fry, Joseph A., The American South and the Vietnam War: Belligerence, Protest, and Agony in Dixie (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2015), 302CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
55 Huff, “Radicals between the Hedges,” 183–86; and “Why?,” SDS Newsletter 1, no. 1 (March 31, 1967), 1, folder 41, box 93, Frederick C. Davison Papers, Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library, University of Georgia, Athens, GA (hereafter cited as Davison Papers).
56 “University Moot Court Argues Rules’ Legality,” Red and Black (Athens, GA), May 9, 1967, 1; and Krakoviak, “Simpson Recalls Days of Sit-ins, Protest.”
57 “Un-Georgialy???!!!,” SDS Newsletter 1, no. 2 (April 20, 1967), 2, folder 41, box 93, Davison Papers.
58 Louise McBee, “Annual Report, Office of the Dean of Women, 1966–67,” 1, folder 23, box 1, Stallings/McBee Papers.
59 Butch Scott, “Senate Passes ‘Bill of Rights’; Constitutional Rights Demanded,” Red and Black (Athens, GA), March 30, 1967, 1; “Saunders Honored by Student Senate: Statement of Rights for Students Passed,” Red and Black (Athens, GA), Nov. 10, 1966, 1; and “Rights Presented,” Red and Black (Athens, GA), Nov. 10, 1966, 1.
60 Louise McBee, “Annual Report, Office of the Dean of Women, 1968–69,” 31, folder 25, box 1, Stallings/McBee Papers; Claire Spiker, “Women's Honor Dorm Draws Large Support,” Red and Black (Athens, GA), April 4, 1967, 1; and “Coeds Respond,” Red and Black (Athens, GA), April 4, 1967, 4.
61 “Women's Rule Changes Adopted by University,” Red and Black (Athens, GA), April 20, 1967, 1.
62 Sharon Tate, “WSGA Announces End to Women's Dress Rules,” Red and Black (Athens, GA), Nov. 9, 1967, 1.
63 “We Love You WSGA,” Red and Black (Athens, GA), Nov. 9, 1967, 4.
64 Williamson-Lott, Jim Crow Campus, 88.
65 “The WSGA Stir,” Red and Black (Athens, GA), Nov. 14, 1967, 4; and “Who Made the Decision,” SDS Newsletter 2, no. 2 (Nov. 13, 1967), 1, folder 11, box 55, Davison Papers.
66 Louise McBee, “Annual Report, Office of the Dean of Women, 1967–68,” 16, folder 24, box 1, Stallings/McBee Papers.
67 Larry Shealy, “Dean Cannon Initiates Rules Evaluation; Stresses Necessity of Students’ Support,” Red and Black (Athens, GA), Oct. 3, 1967, 1; Minutes of the Faculty Committee of Student Affairs, Aug. 14, 1967, folder 26, box 19, Davison Papers; William Tate to Walter Martin, April 23, 1973, folder 1, box 78, William Tate Papers, Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library, University of Georgia, Athens, GA (hereafter cited as Tate Papers); and Harry Cannon to D. J. Sorrells, July 21, 1967, folder 1, box 78, Tate Papers.
68 See, for example, Claire Spiker, “To Sneak Is Degrading,” Red and Black (Athens, GA), Feb. 22, 1968, 4; and Cherri Van Hooven, “Students’ Apathy Poses Problems—Says Pedrick,” Red and Black (Athens, GA), Feb. 13, 1968, 1.
69 Sharon Tate, “SGA Suggests Major Rule Changes,” Red and Black (Athens, GA), Jan. 23, 1968, 1.
70 Sharon Tate, “Waiting . . . and Wondering,” Red and Black (Athens, GA), Jan. 4, 1968, 4.
71 Sharon Tate, “A Positive Request,” Red and Black (Athens, GA), Feb. 20, 1968, 4.
72 Huff, “Radicals between the Hedges,” 194–95.
73 Jo Ann Crowley, “Women's Rights Group Plans March Tomorrow,” Red and Black (Athens, GA), April 9, 1968, 1.
74 Crowley, “Women's Rights Group Plans March Tomorrow.”
75 Jo Ann Rock, “Case Tests WSGA Restrictions,” Red and Black (Athens, GA), Jan. 25, 1968, 1; and “Wygal Case Thrown Out by Faculty,” Red and Black (Athens, GA), April 16, 1968, 1. Wygal won her appeal the next day.
76 Huff, “Radicals between the Hedges,” 198–200 and “Coeds March; Sit-in Academic Building,” Red and Black (Athens, GA), April 11, 1968, 1.
77 Richard Moore, “UGA's Sit-in,” Red and Black (Athens, GA), April 16, 1968, 4.
78 Philip Gailey, “Coeds Stand Pat in Athens Sit-In,” Atlanta Constitution, April 12, 1968, 1.
79 “Apathy Is Dead!!!,” n.d. [April 11, 1968], folder 40, box 93, University of Georgia Ephemera Collection, Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library, University of Georgia, Athens, GA (hereafter cited as Ephemera Collection). UGA women were not the only ones to violate curfew as a protest. At Gettysburg College, for example, students held a “sleep-in” to prove a similar point. Peril, College Girls, 172.
80 Sam Hopkins, “‘We Won't Give In,’ Vow Militant University of Georgia Coeds,” Atlanta Constitution, April 12, 1968, 54.
81 “Georgia Co-eds Continue Sit-In,” Chicago Sun-Times, April 12, 1968, 3.
82 Huff, “Radicals between the Hedges,” 200 “A Report on the Demonstrations in the Administration Building,” n.d. [April 1968], folder 40, box 93, Ephemera Collection; Bob Ingle, “Consent Order Limits U. Ga. Protest Group,” Athens (GA) Banner-Herald, April 23, 1968, 1; and Bill Cozzens, “UGA Sit-In,” Great Speckled Bird (Atlanta, GA), Oct. 7, 1968, 6.
83 N. S. Hayden, “Handling of Protest at U. Ga. Significant,” Athens (GA) Banner-Herald, May 12, 1968, 4. Scott Gelber demonstrated that, in the half century prior to Dixon, judges overwhelmingly sided with institutions in expulsion cases. Gelber, Scott M., Courtrooms and Classrooms: A Legal History of College Access, 1860–1960 (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2016), 96–110Google Scholar.
84 “U. Ga. Wake Staged,” Athens (GA) Banner Herald, April 18, 1968, 1, 2; “Dear Queen Bee,” n.d. [April 1968], folder 40, box 93, Ephemera Collection; “Free Speech, SSOC Banned, Rusk Invited,” Great Speckled Bird (Atlanta, GA), May 10-23, 1968, 10; and “The Chosen Trinity,” Red and Black (Athens, GA), May 16, 1968, 4.
85 Jo Ann Rock, “Coed Rights Trio Face Misconduct Hearings Today,” Red and Black (Athens, GA), May 21, 1968, 1; and Ron Taylor, “Crowd Views Hearings Opening,” Red and Black (Athens, GA), May 23, 1968, 1. While the 1960s saw a rise in due process, the use of legal counsel and trappings of a court hearing exceeded legal requirements. Gehring, Donald D., “The Objectives of Student Discipline and the Process That's Due: Are They Compatible?,” NASPA Journal 38, no. 4 (July 2001), 474CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
86 Philip Gailey, “Student Hearing Ends on Generosity Bid,” Atlanta Constitution, May 29, 1968, 14.
87 Gailey, “Student Hearing Ends on Generosity Bid”; “Leader Suspended, Students Sit In,” Atlanta Constitution, May 31, 1968, 1; and “10 Continue Athens Protest Despite Rain,” Atlanta Constitution, June 3, 1968, 3. “Georgia Students Call Off Protests on Women's Rules,” New York Times, April 13, 1968, 11.
88 Becky Leet, “Absurd, Juvenile Antics,” Red and Black (Athens, GA), May 14, 1968, 4.
89 Sharon Tate, “Williams, Senate Commend Davison,” Red and Black (Athens, GA), May 23, 1968, 1.
90 Philip Gailey, “3 Professors Back Athens Protests,” Atlanta Constitution, May 25, 1968, 3.
91 For numerous examples of letters and petitions, see folder 16, box 54, Davison Papers. The tally is on a hand-written note clipped to materials received from faculty and departments.
92 “Coeds Carry ‘Booze Banner,’” Sacramento Union, April 12, 1968, 1, folder 16, box 54, Davison Papers; and “Georgia Students Call Off Protests on Women's Rules,” New York Times, April 13, 1968, 11.
93 Eugene Patterson, “The University Had the Right,” Atlanta Constitution, June 1, 1968, 4.
94 “Turn ‘em Loose,” Atlanta Journal, April 13, 1968, 2A.
95 “Will the Profs Flunk?” Savannah (GA) Morning News, April 18, 1968, 4A.
96 Mrs. Dewey Holland, “Sit-Ins Disgusting,” Lavonia (GA) Times and Gauge, April 25, 1968, 2.
97 K. B. Fincher and Joan Roberts to Fred C. Davison, April 25, 1968, folder 16, box 54, Davison Papers.
98 Mrs. Barnett A. Bell Jr. to Fred Davison, May 8, 1968, folder 16, box 54, Davison Papers.
99 Vera Featherree to Fred C. Davison, April 12, 1968, folder 16, box 54, Davison Papers.
100 O. Suthern Sims Jr. to Boyd McWhorter, April 17, 1968, folder 9, box 55, Davison Papers.
101 Fred Davison to U. GA Foundation Trustees, n.d. [1968], folder 9, box 55, Davison Papers.
102 Ober Tyus, “Davison Reviews Year,” Red and Black (Athens, GA), July 17, 1968, 1.
103 George Harper and Gary Yetter, “Harris Gives Views on Rights,” Red and Black (Athens, GA), May 14, 1968, 4; On the higher education and social control in the South, see McCandless, Past in the Present; and Williamson-Lott, Jim Crow Campus.
104 “Faculty Committee Motions Ok'd by University Council,” Red and Black (Athens, GA), July 10, 1968, 2; and “Administration to Make Major Changes in Rules; New Coed Staffers Due,” Red and Black (Athens, GA), July 10, 1968, 1.
105 See, for example, “U. of Georgia Eases Rules on Curfews and Drinking,” New York Times, July 20, 1968, 28; Philip Gailey, “Athens Coed Restrictions Liberalized,” Atlanta Constitution, July 20, 1968, 1; and “Student Power: No More Curfew for Dixie Belles,” National Observer (Washington, D.C.), July 29, 1968, 1.
106 Thomas Brahana and David Meade Feild, “A Report to the Faculty by the Student Affairs Committee of the AAUP,” May 27, 1968, folder 58, box 41, Tate Papers.
107 Rebecca Leet, “Work Produced Changes,” Red and Black (Athens, GA), Sept. 27, 1968, 5; and Bob Ingle, “Never the Same,” Athens (GA) Banner-Herald, April 28, 1968, 1, 6.
108 Gailey, “Athens Coed Restrictions Liberalized”; and Ginger Hames and Clark Goodwin, “Coeds Hail Relaxed Rules,” Atlanta Journal and Constitution, July 21, 1968, 25A.
109 John S. Conwell, “Protestors Comment,” Red and Black (Athens, GA), Aug. 7, 1968, 4.
110 “Statement on Disruptive and Obstructive Behavior,” folder 15, box 128, Davison Papers; Achsah Nesmith, “Disruptive Protests Banned at All Colleges by Regents,” Atlanta Constitution, Oct. 10, 1968, 1; and “Georgia Colleges Quietly Take in Stride Regents’ Ban on Disruptive Protests,” New York Times, Oct. 13, 1968, 49.
111 See, for example, Jo Ann Rock, “Campus Chest Drive to Face Opposition,” Red and Black (Athens, GA), Oct. 3, 1968, 1; and Philip Gailey, “Activists Getting Ready for Next Confrontation,” Atlanta Constitution, Dec. 10, 1968, 21.
112 See, for example, “Vandals Strike Building,” Red and Black (Athens, GA), Feb. 11, 1969, 1; Jon Ham, “Police Seek ROTC Arsonist,” Red and Black (Athens, GA), March 8, 1972, 1; Phil Gailey, “Blacks List Demands in University Rally,” Atlanta Constitution, April 18, 1969, 6; and “Pro-UGA Petition,” folder 6, box 54, Davison Papers.
113 See, for example, Steve Stewart, “Students Can Regulate Activities Fund—Barber,” Red and Black (Athens, GA), Jan. 28, 1969, 1; Steve Stewart, “Increased Responsibility Given to SGA This Year,” Red and Black (Athens, GA), May 28, 1969, 1, 10; Christopher Bonner, “Faculty Approved Housing Changes Set Fall Quarter,” Red and Black (Athens, GA), Feb. 6, 1969, 1; and “Proposal for Changes in the Regulatory System at the University of Georgia,” folder 59, box 41, Tate Papers.
114 Sartorious, Deans of Women, 147–62.
115 Mike Howell, “Judiciary Results from Hard Work,” Red and Black (Athens, GA), Jan. 14, 1969, 4.
116 Lyn Battey, “Judiciary Shift Leaves WSGA without Function,” Red and Black (Athens, GA), Oct. 10, 1968, 9; and Donna Collins, “North Advises Coeds to Take Active Part,” Red and Black (Athens, GA), April 8, 1969, 8.
117 Larry Mitchell, “11 Dorms to Get Women Assistants,” Red and Black (Athens, GA), April 8, 1969, 1; and Steve Stewart, “Dorm Council Working,” Red and Black (Athens, GA), Dec. 4, 1969, 5.
118 Kay Giese, “More Funds Sought for Women's Sports,” Red and Black (Athens, GA), May 18, 1971, 1; and “Exchange Corner: Three on Board,” Red and Black (Athens, GA), Feb. 3, 1970, 2.
119 Sartorious, Deans of Women, 147–62; and Carol Roberts, “Women's Lib: UGA Men for It,” Red and Black (Athens, GA), Dec. 2, 1971, 1.
120 Kathryn Nemeth Tuttle, What Became of the Dean of Women? Changing Roles for Women Administrators in American Higher Education, 1940–1980 (PhD diss., University of Kansas, 1996), 326–54; and Gaston-Gayles et al., “From Disciplinarian to Change Agent.”
121 Larry Mitchell, “Office to Begin Housing Survey; Armstrong Says,” Red and Black (Athens, GA), Jan. 23, 1969, 1; Judy Bateman, “Resident Assistants Offer Valuable Aid to Students,” Red and Black (Athens, GA), Dec. 4, 1969, 6; Pete McCommons, interview by Fran Lane, Athens, GA, Nov. 30, 2012, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7aRkX_7ijJ4; and Pete McCommons, interview by Rachael Dier, Athens, GA, November 28, 2018. UGA student Cindy Luke later claimed that the program presaged the national calls for residential reform by the President's Commission on Campus Unrest. Cindy Luke, “Athens Housing Like a Community,” Atlanta Constitution, Nov. 21, 1970, 12T.
122 Phil Gailey, “Athens Protest ‘Like a Rock Festival,” Atlanta Constitution, Oct. 16, 1969, 7A.
123 Robinette Kennedy, “SMOSS Group Organizes to Support Nixon Policies,” Red and Black (Athens, GA), Nov. 11, 1969, 1.
124 Dyer, University of Georgia, 349–52.
125 Janet Summers, “Social Responsibility–One Indivisible Entity; Not Divided Crusade,” Red and Black (Athens, GA), May 21, 1970, 4.
126 See, for example, “Free University Presents Alternative to Students,” Red and Black (Athens, GA), Sept. 27, 1968, 2; and “Free University Plans Discussion,” Red and Black (Athens, GA), Oct. 1, 1968, 1. Jane Lichtman argues that free universities were less prevalent in the South than elsewhere but attributed that difference to institution size more than regional factors. Lichtman, Jane, Bring Your Own Bag: A Report on Free Universities (Washington, DC: American Association for Higher Education, 1973), 23Google Scholar.
127 See, for example, Carol Roberts, “Blacks Here Demand More Representation,” Red and Black (Athens, GA), May 11, 1971, 1; and Bob Dart, “Black Leader: Change Now,” Red and Black (Athens, GA), Oct. 21, 1971, 1.
128 See, for example, Velma Smith, “Lib Group Looks for More Members,” Red and Black (Athens, GA), May 25, 1971, 7; Carol Roberts, “Women's Lib Says Yes: Discrimination Here?” Red and Black (Athens, GA), Dec. 1, 1971, 1; and Carol Roberts, “Women's Lib: UGA Men for It,” Red and Black, December 2, 1971, 1, 2.
129 Linda Chafin, phone interview by Rachael Dier, Athens, GA, June 19, 2020.
130 “Continued University Repression,” Right On! 5 no. 1 (1972), 1, folder 3, box 53, Davison Papers.
131 Huff, “Conservative Student Activism,” 175–80; “CCC Prints ‘Right On!,’” Red and Black (Athens, GA), Jan. 28, 1971, 2; “Continued University Repression”; “Big Brother at Work,” Right On!, 5, no. 1; and Jon Ham, “Dorm Program Halted Under Fire,” Red and Black (Athens, GA), Feb. 4, 1972, 1, 5.
132 Ham, “Dorm Program Halted Under Fire,” 1, 5.
133 Carl P. Savage Jr., “Communal Life at the University of Georgia,” n.d. [Jan. 1972], folder 9, box 54, Davison Papers.
134 Savage, “Communal Life at the University of Georgia,” 2.
135 O. Suthern Sims Jr. to Fred C. Davison, Jan. 21, 1972, folder 9, box 54, Davison Papers; M. Louise McBee to O. Suthern Sims, Jan. 21, 1972, folder 9, box 54, Davison Papers; and O. Suthern Sims Jr. to Fred C. Davison, Jan. 29, 1972, folder 9, box 54, Davison Papers.
136 Savage, “Communal Life at the University of Georgia,” 1. Florida universities experienced a related controversy the year before after a regent, opposed to open visitation, alleged the dormitories were “taxpayer's whorehouses.” Ben B. Ross to Chappelle Matthews, n.d. [1972], folder 15, box 128, Davison Papers; and Stephen Eugene Parr, The Forgotten Radicals: The New Left in the Deep South, Florida State University, 1960 to 1972 (PhD diss., Florida State University, 2000), 331–38.
137 Savage, “Communal Life at the University of Georgia,” 2.
138 “Solons Plan Pop Dorm Visits,” Red and Black (Athens, GA), Feb. 1, 1972, 1.
139 Sims to Davison, Exhibit 0, Jan. 21, 1972, folder 9, box 54, Davison Papers.
140 Tom Linthicum, “Georgia's Davison Denies ‘Drunk’ Parties,” Atlanta Constitution, Jan. 27, 1972, 12A; Ken Willis, “‘Commune’ Charge Dealt Severe Blow,” Red and Black (Athens, GA), Jan. 27, 1972, 1; and Sims to Davison, Jan. 29, 1972, Davison Papers.
141 O. Suthern Sims Jr. to Richard Armstrong, Jan. 7, 1972, folder 3, box 53, Davison Papers; and O. Suthern Sims Jr., “Chronology of Events,” Dec. 12, 1972, folder 10, box 53, Davison Papers.
142 Ham, “Dorm Program Halted Under Fire,” 1, 5; “Regents Hear Literature Gripes,” Red and Black (Athens, GA), Feb. 9, 1972, 1; and Richard C. Armstrong to O. Suthern Sims Jr., Jan. 28, 1972, folder 10, box 53, Davison Papers.
143 Minutes, housing meeting, Feb. 4, 1972, folder 10, box 53, Davison Papers.
144 Alice Lovejoy to President Davison, Feb. 3, 1972, folder 2, box 53, Davison Papers.
145 Michael J. White to Fred C. Davison, Feb. 8, 1972, folder 9, box 54, Davison Papers.
146 “Police Arrest 33 at Sit-In,” Red and Black (Athens, GA), May 4, 1972, 1.
147 Fran Fulton, “Taylor, Goad Resign as Area Coordinators,” Red and Black (Athens, GA), Feb. 25, 1972, 1.
148 “Dorm Crackdown Set,” Red and Black (Athens, GA), Feb. 11, 1972, 1; Fran Fulton, “Crack Down, Memo Orders,” Red and Black (Athens, GA), Feb. 15, 1972, 1; Fran Fulton and Sam Farris, “Misunderstanding Spurs Resignations,” Red and Black (Athens, GA), Feb. 22, 1972, 1; Fulton, “Taylor, Goad Resign as Area Coordinators”; and “Sixth CRE Quits, Was Last One Left,” Red and Black (Athens, GA), April 20, 1972, 1.
149 Fran Fulton, “Four Quit Housing,” Red and Black (Athens, GA), Feb. 18, 1972, 1.
150 Joyce Taylor to Richard Armstrong, March 15, 1972, folder 10, box 53, Davison Papers; Fulton, “Taylor, Goad Resign as Area Coordinators”; and “Vandals Hit Official's Apartment,” Red and Black (Athens, GA), March 1, 1972, 1.
151 See, for example, Nick Curry, “A Dean of Student Control?” Red and Black (Athens, GA), April 6, 1972, 3; and Scott McLarty, “Promises, Promises!” Red and Black (Athens, GA), June 28, 1972, 4. Student affairs administrators in the era were often in difficult positions, forced to enact administrative mandates for control despite their desires to support students. Gaston-Gayles et al., “From Disciplinarian to Change Agent,” 268–275.
152 See, for example, Jim Corbett, “RHA Petition Protests Dorm Rule Crackdown,” Red and Black (Athens, GA), April 11, 1972, 1; O. Suthern Sims Jr. to David Bell and Stephen Patrick, May 1, 1972, folder 10, box 53, Davison Papers; RHA, “The Crackdown Poses Real Threat,” folder 2, box 32, Davison Papers; “Protesting Students Meet with Davison,” Red and Black (Athens, GA), May 5, 1972, 1; Linda Beasley and Toddy Horton, “2 Students Indicted for Protests,” Red and Black (Athens, GA), May 24, 1972, 1; Pete McCommons, “All My Trials, Pt. 1,” Flagpole, March 6, 2013, 1. https://flagpole.com/news/pub-notes/2013/03/06/all-my-trials-pt-1-1; and McCommons, interview by Dier.
153 Chafin, interview by Dier.
154 Leslie Thornton, “Innocent Plea Set in Trespass Trial,” Red and Black (Athens, GA) September 29, 1972, 1,
155 See, for example, Leslie Thornton, “Last Year's Protestors Lose Financial Aid Here,” Red and Black (Athens, GA), Oct. 27, 1972, 1; Joyce Murdoch, “Federal Funds Denied to Students in Sit-In,” Red and Black (Athens, GA), May 25, 1973, 1; and Ken Elkins, “Eligibility for Aid Restored,” Red and Black (Athens, GA), Sept. 20, 1973, 1.
156 “Double Jeopardy,” Red and Black (Athens, GA), Sept. 27, 1972, 4; O. Suthern Sims Jr. to Albert Jones, Nov. 29, 1972, folder 10, box 53, Davison Papers; and Leslie Thornton, “No Sentences for Protestors,” Red and Black (Athens, GA), Nov. 30, 1972, 1.
157 See, for example, “Guilty: ‘Athens Eight’ to Be Sentenced,” Red and Black (Athens, GA), Feb. 20, 1973, 1; Michael Simpson, “The First and Second Trials,” Red and Black (Athens, GA), Feb. 22, 1973, 4; Laurie Gregory, “‘Athens Eight’ Retrial Denied,” Red and Black (Athens, GA), Nov. 13, 1973, 1; Pete McCommons, “All My Trials, Pt. 2,” Flagpole, March 13, 2013, https://flagpole.com/news/pub-notes/2013/03/13/all-my-trials-pt-2/; McCommons, interview by Lane; and McCommons, interview by Dier.
158 Steve Stewart, “Professor Links His Firing to Sit-in,” Atlanta Constitution, June 29, 1973, 5B; McCommons, “All My Trials, Pt. 2”; and McCommons, interview by Dier. McCommons's dismissal fit a larger pattern where untenured faculty who combined activism and defiance of administrators faced dismissal. Lewis, Lionel S., “Academic Freedom Cases and Their Disposition,” Change 4, no. 6 (Summer 1972), 8, 77–78CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
159 Gary North to Frederick Davison, Nov. 14, 1973, 5, folder 9, box 53, Davison Papers.
160 Mitchell Shields, “Faculty Protests Handling of Eight,” Red and Black (Athens, GA), March 6, 1973, 1.
161 Mary Swint, “Reactions Vary: Participants Reflect on Effect of Sit-In,” Red and Black (Athens, GA), March 23, 1973, 3.
162 Swint, “Reactions Vary.”
163 McCommons, “All My Trials, Pt. 2.”
164 Timothy Reese Cain and Michael S. Hevel, “Dances, Lawsuits, and the Struggle for LGBTQ College Student Rights in the Deep South.” Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association, April 2020.
165 Swint, “Reactions Vary.”
166 “Closeup: Louise McBee,” Athens (GA) Observer, Feb. 13, 1975, 3.
167 Fry, The American South and the Vietnam War, 285.
168 McCandless, Past in the Present, 245–48; and Williamson-Lott, Jim Crow Campus, 88.
169 Rice, Bradley R., “Urbanization, ‘Atlanta-ization,’ and Suburbanization: Three Themes for the Urban History of Twentieth Century Georgia,” Georgia Historical Quarterly 68, no. 1 (April 1984), 40–49Google Scholar.
170 Brahana and Feild, “A Report to the Faculty by the Student Affairs Committee,” 5.
171 Malkiel, “Keep the Damned Women Out.”
172 William Tate, Semi-Monthly Report, Oct. 15–31, 1970, folder 58, box 41, Tate Papers; and Williamson-Lott, Jim Crow Campus.
173 Blau, Peter M. and Slaughter, Ellen L., “Institutional Conditions and Student Demonstrations,” Social Problems 18, no. 4 (April 1971), 479–80CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and van Dyke, Nella, “Hotbeds of Activism: Locations of Student Protest,” Social Problems 45, no. 2 (May 1998), 205–20CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
174 McCommons, interview by Lane.
175 Ferguson, Roderick A., We Demand: The University and Student Protests (Oakland: University of California Press, 2017), 14–31CrossRefGoogle Scholar.